7.36 Hofmannsthal — «Ein Brief» (the Chandos letter) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the whole of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Ein Brief (1902), the famous Chandos letter, in which a young writer explains to his friend why he can no longer write, or even speak, about anything. Follow an elevated letter style: long sentences, formal address, mein hochverehrter Freund , and verbs that take a genitive object, ich bedürfe der Medizin , dieses Nußbaums ansichtig werden . Read the past subjunctive of strong verbs in comparisons: als träten mir diese lateinischen Wörter … vors Auge , als bestünde mein Körper aus lauter Chiffern . Understand one of the key documents of the crisis of language around 1900. Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English mein zweijähriges Stillschweigen zu übersehen to overlook my two years' silence um meinen Sinn für den Zustand meines Innern zu schärfen to sharpen my sense of the state of my inner self zerfielen mir im Munde wie modrige Pilze crumbled in my mouth like mouldy mushrooms über die Angelegenheiten des Hofes, die Vorkommnisse im Parlament, oder was Sie sonst wollen, ein Urteil herauszubringen. to produce a judgement on the affairs of the court, the events in parliament, or whatever you like. und nichts mehr ließ sich mit einem Begriff umspannen and nothing could be encompassed by a concept any longer über die sonst ein Auge mit selbstverständlicher Gleichgültigkeit hinweggleitet over which an eye otherwise glides with natural indifference Prerequisites : 7.35 — you need the formal style of letters from 9.1 Writing , the genitive object from 7.26 Reading , the subjunctive of comparison from 7.31 Reading , and the vocabulary of philosophy from 5.18 Vocabulary . About this text Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929) was a Viennese prodigy: while still at school he published poems, under the pen name Loris, that astonished the writers of the city. Around 1900 he almost stopped writing poetry and turned to drama and essays; he later wrote the libretti for Richard Strauss's operas, among them Der Rosenkavalier , and was a founder of the Salzburg Festival. Ein Brief appeared in October 1902 in the Berlin newspaper Der Tag . The letter is fiction set in history. Its writer is an invented English nobleman, Philipp Lord Chandos, twenty-six years old, who writes in August 1603 to the real philosopher Francis Bacon. Bacon has asked why Chandos has written nothing for two years. Chandos explains that he has lost the ability to think or speak coherently about anything: abstract words fall apart in his mouth, and ordinary judgements seem to him unprovable. At the same time he experiences moments of intense, wordless communion with the humblest things, a watering can, a dog in the sun, rats dying in a cellar. He will never write another book, because the language in which he could think is one of which he knows not a single word, eine Sprache, in welcher die stummen Dinge zu mir sprechen . The letter is often read as a statement of the Sprachkrise , the crisis of language that many writers and philosophers felt around 1900 in Vienna, where the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein would later ask what can be said at all. The irony is that this account of the failure of language is written in perfect, rich, controlled prose. The text here is complete, about 3,800 words, from the edition of Hofmannsthal's works published by S. Fischer in 1979 as transcribed in the TextGrid Repository. Grammar in the text The formal letter. Chandos writes to an older and greater man. He uses Sie and polite formulas, mein hochverehrter Freund , mein verehrter Freund , and apologises for his long account: Ich habe Sie … mit dieser ausgebreiteten Schilderung … über Gebühr belästigt. Compare the formal letters of 9.1 Writing : the frame is the same, three hundred years older in style. Verbs with a genitive object. Hofmannsthal uses the genitive after verbs where modern German has a preposition or an accusative: ich bedürfe der Medizin , I need medicine ; jene Worte …, deren sich doch alle Menschen … zu bedienen pflegen , those words which all people are accustomed to use ; Ich entsinne mich dieses Planes , I remember this plan ; wenn ich dieses Nußbaums ansichtig werde , when I catch sight of this walnut tree . These forms belong to elevated written German and are still used in formal style. The past subjunctive of strong verbs. Comparisons with als and the verb directly after it, as in 7.31 Reading , are frequent: als träten mir diese lateinischen Wörter, so verbunden, zum ersten Male vors Auge ; Es ist mir dann, als bestünde mein Körper aus lauter Chiffern ; als geriete ich selber in Gärung, würfe Blasen auf, wallte und funkelte . The forms träten, bestünde, geriete, würfe are the old subjunctive II of treten, bestehen, geraten, werfen (here aufwerfen : würfe … auf ), rare in speech but normal in literary prose. pflegen zu . die Urteile, die leichthin … abgegeben zu werden pflegen , the judgements that are usually given lightly . pflegen zu + infinitive means to be in the habit of , a formal alternative to gewöhnlich . Adjectives as nouns. The letter talks about things that have no name, so it uses many adjectives and participles as nouns: das Stoffliche , the material ; ein Scheinhaftes , something illusory ; etwas völlig Unbenanntes , something completely unnamed ; das Tiefste, das Persönliche meines Denkens . An old neuter. ein struppiges Mensch , the milkmaid, uses Mensch as a neuter noun, an old and contemptuous word for a woman of low status. Today das Mensch survives only in regional speech, as an insult; the standard word is der Mensch , the human being . Reading it a second time, section by section The greeting (paragraphs 2–4). A short note by an editor introduces the letter. Chandos thanks Bacon for writing despite two years of silence, and wonders whether he is still the same man who wrote elegant pastoral plays at nineteen and planned a Latin treatise at twenty-three, whose title n